Proving the Earth is flat

[BoomerSooner17]

Seriously! I had a heck of a time acquiring enough material to build my interstellar space cruiser. Of course, I was six and the cruiser was cardboard with controls drawn in Sharpie. Sadly, it was not a reusable craft, since it didn't survive the impact with the bottom of the stairs.

Oddly, though, even at that tender age I believed that the Earth was round.

[JamesVincent]

What was that TV show where the guy owned a scrap yard and built his own space rocket? Early 80s maybe?

[notorial dissent]

Andy Griffith. Salvage One.

[Judge Roy Bean]

This is fun to watch - of course the flat earthers will say it's a production, but knowing the man in it as I do, I can personally attest to his record. (He's flown or flown in almost everything in the USAF inventory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU-DwT65Qto

[BoomerSooner17]

Yeah, well....the horizon only looks curved because the camera lens/helmet visor/cockpit canopy is curved. So there!

[Pottapaug1938]

Yeah, well....the horizon only looks curved because the camera lens/helmet visor/cockpit canopy is curved. So there!

Earlier today, I read of a Bostonian flat-earther who claims that gravity bends light rays, when they are close to the earth, and that's why you see the masts of a ship before the lower parts.

Yeah -- it's BS; but this poor deluded fool believes it with a passion. It cost him his longtime girlfriend, among other things.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Yeah, well....the horizon only looks curved because the camera lens/helmet visor/cockpit canopy is curved. So there!

Yeah, that must be it!

[BoomerSooner17]

Funny story from my youth (I was probably 4 or so):
I was in my grandfather's study, where he and my uncle were showing me a globe. My uncle explained to me that if I were to go into my backyard and dig a hole deep enough, I would end up in China. The way my uncle recounts this story, I took a few minutes to mull over this information, then asked, "Can I get there another way?" My grandfather, who had been silently listening to this exchange, exploded in laughter.

[Famspear]

....Earlier today, I read of a Bostonian flat-earther who claims that gravity bends light rays, when they are close to the earth, and that's why you see the masts of a ship before the lower parts....

The part about gravity bending light rays is correct, according to Albert Einstein, circa 1915-1916.

According to Einstein, space itself is curved by the presence of matter, which effectively means (in part) that a clump of matter with a sufficiently large mass (such as The Sun) can bend light waves from distant stars that pass relatively close to The Sun -- to the extent that scientists have been able to measure this deflection effect during a solar eclipse, as the astronomer Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington did in 1919, with the result that Einstein became a world-famous celebrity.

But, you're right; it is BS to claim that this effect has something material to do with why you see the masts of a ship before you see the lower parts.

[Judge Roy Bean]

As I understand it, even though photons have no mass, gravity still affects them - but it has to be an enormous force to affect space time enough to make them appear to move in a curve. Earth's mass is far too small to exert a gravitational force that would make photons move in anything but a straight line.

[Arthur Rubin]

As I understand it, even though photons have no mass, gravity still affects them - but it has to be an enormous force to affect space time enough to make them appear to move in a curve. Earth's mass is far too small to exert a gravitational force that would make photons move in anything but a straight line.

Not entirely correct. GPS calculations have to account for both different clock speeds at the user and at the satellite, and the curved path from the user to the satellite.

It should be noted that photons have a curved path in Newtonian gravity; the deflection under general relativity is exactly twice that in the Newtonian calculation.

[BoomerSooner17]

Well, the rocket man finally made his flight:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/se ... ky-n859801
His flight was fraught with danger:

"This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways," said Hughes, who had an altimeter in his cockpit to measure his altitude. "This thing will kill you in a heartbeat."

Aside from obvious attention-seeking, getting his adrenaline fix, and ruining his back, it's not clear what the purpose of the flight was, since he probably didn't get enough altitude to see the curvature of the Earth, and even if he had, it would have merely confirmed his belief in the generic-name-for-flying-disc shape of the Earth:

He's always maintained that his mission isn't to prove the Earth is flat. "Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee? I believe it is," he said. "Do I know for sure? No. That's why I want to go up in space."

But not to worry! He has big plans for the future:

He wants to build a "Rockoon," a rocket that is carried into the atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and lit. This rocket would take Hughes about 68 miles up.

His future plans are simple: Fill out the paperwork to run for governor. "This is no joke," Hughes said. "I want to do it."

This really annoys me because it means that the last four years that I spent earning my mechanical engineering degree were wasted. I could've just bought into Flat Earth and saved all that money!

[wserra]

the last four years that I spent earning my mechanical engineering degree

Oklahoma?

[BoomerSooner17]

the last four years that I spent earning my mechanical engineering degree

Oklahoma?

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain!
Yep.

[Qweek]

I do not understand how such a theory could ever appear ??? Flat land?
Or was it invented for the sake of an anecdote?

[notorial dissent]

Some people still believe the Sun revolves around the Earth. Go figure. Then again some people are just plain stupid AND gov't.

[Pottapaug1938]

I do not understand how such a theory could ever appear ??? Flat land?
Or was it invented for the sake of an anecdote?

Simple. To a prescientific world, the sun does appear to revolve around the earth, and the land does appear flat. Most people did not travel very far from their homes, and never found any reason to believe otherwise. They also failed to understand much of the evidence which is easily apparent to us today.

[Qweek]

It was in ancient times. But even now a theory about flat land has reappeared. I'm talking about modern theory.

[Pottapaug1938]

It was in ancient times. But even now a theory about flat land has reappeared. I'm talking about modern theory.

Right; but just as woo-peddlers are "rediscovering traditional medicine", as practiced by the shamans, medicine men and healers of old, they are not "rediscovering suppressed truths" about the solar system; and their knowledge of science is on a pre-scientific level.

[Qweek]

The basic postulates of the followers of the theory of flat earth:
Imagine a disk with the north pole in its center, the diameter of the disk is just over forty thousand kilometers - this is our planet. The earth is covered with a transparent dome, over which the sun and moon rotate, like point lights, it provides a change of day and night, gravity, in its usual representation, does not exist. There is no Antarctic, and instead of the South Pole the edge of the earth, it is encircled around the ice wall. All photos from space are, fakes processed in photoshop or other programs. Space ships and other devices are made of cardboard and plywood, all travel to space are shot according to fictional scenarios on earth. The dominant view of the sphericity of the earth is only a conspiracy sponsored by Freemasons in order to hide the truth from the entire population of the planet. Everyone who knows the truth: scientists, NASA staff, astronauts are funded by Freemasons and are also participants in the plot.